WHY RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION AND PERSECUTION?
WHY should ministers of the Gospel of Christ demand religious legislation? Why do they demand that religious dogmas should be enforced by law? Why do they work for Sunday laws? Why do politics to secure Sunday laws? They are ministers of the Gospel, not of the law. "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation." Rom. 1:16, 17. When the Son of God commissioned His servants to do their work, it was not to execute law, but to "preach the Gospel," with the assurance that "all power" was at their command. Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:18-20. The condemning did not rest with them; he who did not believe condemned himself by his unbelief. Nay, more: "He that believeth not is condemned already." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. All, therefore, are under condemnation. To lift men from that condemnation, Jesus Christ came into the world. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved thru Him." John 3:16, 17. "If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John 12:47. Of His servants, Jesus says: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world." John 17:14, 18. The ministers of Christ have no higher or different commission than the Master. They are in Christ's stead to beseech souls to be reconciled to God, to persuade men to turn from the judgment to come. 2 Cor. 5:20, 14. Why, then, do professed ministers of Christ turn from the heralding of the glad tidings of God to be ministers of law and lobbyists in politics? Our Lord has revealed one great secret of it in the following words of comfort: "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be caused to stumble. They shall put you out of the synagogs; yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God. [And so the persecutors thought all thru the Dark Ages.] And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father nor Me." John 16:1-3. No man who knows Christ and the power of His Gospel will ever seek to enforce religion by law.